A group of physicists from Harvard and MIT just built a quantum computer that ran continuously for more than two hours. Although it doesn’t sound like much versus regular computers (like servers that run 24/7 for months, if not years), this is a huge breakthrough in quantum computing. As reported by The Harvard Crimson, most current quantum computers run for only a few milliseconds, with record-breaking machines only able to operate for a little over 10 seconds.
Although two hours is still a bit limited, researchers say that the concept behind this could allow future quantum computers to run for much longer, maybe even indefinitely.
There is still a way to go and scale from where we are now, but the roadmap is now clear based on the breakthrough experiments that we’ve done here at Harvard.
Tout T. Wang, Research Associate
The Challenge of Qubits
The main difference between “regular” and quantum computing is that the latter uses qubits, which are subatomic particles, to hold and process data. But unlike the former, which retain information even without power, quantum computers can lose these qubits in a process called “atom loss”. This results in information loss and eventually system failure.
Source: The Harvard Crimson
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